Thursday, April 28, 2005
Mind reading computers?
This story is just plain scary, researchers have found that the brain reacts differently to different stimuli, and have developed software that can say which stimuli the person was subjected to, even when they don't know it themselves. The scientists have plans to make it possible for the software to know what kind of mood a person is in, even if they are mentally stable, perhaps even "reading" your thoughts.
Surely this invades any sense of privacy that anybody could have. It really doesn't matter what I think, what matters is how I act on it.
For example, if I became extremely annoyed at someone and felt like murdering them, this would only be a passing thought, and as long as I didn't act on it, it would have no relevance, but if my mind were read while I was thinking this, surely I could then be charged for conspiring to murder, even if I had no intention of carrying out such action. For that matter, what right does anybody have to find out what I am thinking, unless I inform them. I have to wonder how anybody can create such technology and think it is a good idea.
Samuel
